Author's notes: This probably isn't very good… ; But it wouldn't leave me alone. It might not make much sense, but I had to write it because it was there, and it wouldn't shut up. This is set a while after Kimbley was back in the military and after Greed died.
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no ownership over FMA, Kimbley, or Greed. Be l33t if I did though.
Why isn't it the Same?
By Jimmy Sprinkles
Frank Archer and Zolf Kimbley were sitting in a room. Nothing was particularly remarkable about it. No one was saying anything. There was nothing to make sitting here different from sitting near anyone else.
So why wasn't it the same?
The temperature was nothing in particular- that wasn't it. Kimbley and he had sat together saying nothing before, so that wasn't it, either. There was nothing to make being here anything different from being with him at all.
So why was it so different?
Weren't they the same? Kimbley couldn't figure it out. Both the man next to him and he were just means to an end, right? They were both just people, right? They were both merely lumps of protein, right?
So then why did his face keep coming to mind? All Kimbley ever cared about anyone was their chemical makeup, so why did he keep thinking of his face, of all things? In Kimbley's mind, a smile kept appearing. A sharp-toothed, dimpled smile.
The man next to him didn't smile like that.
A pair of eyes, bright purple, that would just stare into Kimbley's own eyes.
The man next to him didn't stare quite like that.
But why was it like that? Kimbley never even looked at anyone's face- he just saw the elements in them. Right? Right?
It was different. It was definitely different. But Kimbley just couldn't figure out what the difference was. Why was he any different from anyone else? To Kimbley, they're all just explosives, aren't they?
So then, why wasn't it the same?
Kimbley wasn't even sure if he wanted it to be the same, he just knew that it wasn't, and that bothered him.
There was something missing. He finally put his finger on that. Something was there when he sat near him that wasn't here now, sitting with Archer. But what was it?
He had slept with both men, of course. Why not? But something was missing there, too. There was a space, a chasm, something gone. What was it?
He looked over at Archer. And he saw nothing. He slammed the wall with his fist in frustration.
Archer looked slightly worried. "Kimbley?"
Kimbley looked at him again. He still didn't see him. Just random elements in a large mass. Rearrange them just a bit, and it would explode. The person next to him wasn't a person at all.
"Dammit!" Kimbley was close. He knew he had almost figured it out, but it was just beyond him.
Archer was still talking, but Kimbley couldn't hear him.
He wasn't even human! Why was he so different? He didn't even have a soul, did he?
A soul. Had Kimbley ever even thought of the word before? Did the person- thing next to him have a soul? No. He was just a bunch of chemicals. Was he even alive?
Oh. That was the difference. Just something simple like that. How odd….
Kimbley stood up and left. He didn't care where he was going, he just left.
The difference. Why it wasn't the same. Kimbley finally had it.
Someone had once said that the eyes were the windows to the soul. Kimbley thought that was a load of crap. He'd looked at people's eyes before, and he hadn't seen anything.
Until he saw his eyes. Those purple eyes were real. They felt.
The difference was, that in this whole world, this whole god damn planet, Greed was the only thing that was really alive. The only thing that was really a person, out of everything.
But, now it never would be the same, would it? He would never be back.
Kimbley shoved his hands in his pockets and walked back.
Owari